1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure or system to wire a door harness in a vehicle and, more particularly, to a structure or system in which the door harness is wired from the door inner panel to the body panel. The door harness is thus not drawn out toward the vehicle body through a hole provided in the edge face of the door panel adjacent to the vehicle body panel.
2. Description of Background Information
Typically, a door harness used in a vehicle had to be drawn out from inside the door inner panel toward the body panel through a hole provided in the edge face of the door inner panel adjacent the body panel, and then connected to a wire harness in the body panel. However, when the door harness is drawn out from inside the door inner panel, it is not possible to control the wiring operations visually. Also, a strong force is required during this wiring operation. Hence, harness-passing operations are considered difficult tasks.
Accordingly, there has been proposed a door harness system using so-called “pass-work-less” grommet or duct, by virtue of which harness-passing operations became unnecessary.
For instance, patent document JP-A-HEI-11-20573 discloses a door-harness wiring system using a “pass-work-less” grommet or duct 1, as shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B. This particular “pass-work-less” grommet or duct 1 includes a cylindrical bellows portion 2 through which the wire harness W is passed by pulling out from the door inner panel D. The grommet 1 further includes a flat fitting plate 3 bent into an L shape. The fitting plate 3 covers the corner section formed at the edge face of the door inner panel D, and the wire harness W is made to run along the internal face of the fitting plate 3. The wire harness wired in this manner is then covered by a protection plate 4 fitted from inside the door inner panel D.
Such a construction makes it unnecessary to pull out the wire harness W from the hole formed in the door inner panel D. Instead, the wire harness W is wired along the internal face of the door inner panel D toward its edge face, via its corner section, and led out toward the body panel B. The wire harness W can thus be wired by changing the level upward or downward at the fulcrum in the hinge arrangement between the door and the vehicle body. Hence, upon opening or closing the door, the wire harness W is merely twisted, but neither stretched nor compressed.
However, a weather strip 5, shown in FIG. 1B, must be mounted in a way to cross on the surface of the grommet 1 and door inner panel D. In order to achieve a high degree of water-sealing, it is necessary to flatten the grommet 1 and the wire harness W passing therethrough. This, in turn, makes it necessary to reduce the difference in level between the fitting plate 3 of the grommet 1 and the door inner panel D so as to prevent the gap from being formed. However, to use the flat grommet 1, the fitting plate 3 and the protector sheet 4 should be composed of a specific resin-made product, and the wire harness W and the grommet 1 must be provided with a special water-sealing structure. Such newly-designed products will increase the number of component parts and harness-mounting steps and, consequently, costs.
To counter this problem, there has been proposed a structure in which the weather strip 5 is mounted in a manner to avoid passing over the area of the grommet 1, e.g., by having the door harness installed closer to the passenger compartment relative to the weather strip. However, the wiring route of the door harness then becomes biased from the hinge arrangement between the door and the vehicle body, toward the passenger compartment, and the door harness has to be twisted, as well as stretched or compressed.
Taking account of these drawbacks, JP-A-HEI 10-181479 of the present applicant proposes a structure shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, in which a guide frame 6 having a triangular shape is mounted on either the door or the vehicle body. The wire harness is contained in this guide frame 6, with the excess length looped and wired toward the counterpart door or body. In this manner, the wire harness W can be pulled out from the guide frame 6 and stretched or compressed.
The guide frame 6 has an insertion opening 6a and an exit opening 6b. After the wire harness W is passed through the guide frame 6, the part of the harness placed adjacent the insertion opening 6a is fixed thereto with tape 9. The wire harness W follows a turn in the guide frame 6 so as to form a folded portion 7, and pulled out from the exit opening 6b. The inner side of the folded portion 7 is flanked by a spring plate 8 having, e.g., a V-shaped cross-section, so that, when the door is closed, the wire harness W is drawn back into the guide frame 6 by the return force of the spring plate 8.
However, the above structure still has a drawback in that it requires a special component part, i.e., a guide frame 6 or the like.
A recent increase in the number of component parts and electrical cables mounted in new-model cars has made the door harness increasingly thicker, and such a door harness is hardly apt to be turned or bent in a small guide frame 6. Moreover, in such a state, the door harness receives too much load.